Scientific and genetic studies prove that the Khoi-San people where the first modern humans in the Western Cape of South Africa (as a territory of origin). They have probably lived in south Africa for 10,000 years; they were decimated by white settlers brought in by the Dutch VOC and by diseases introduced into the subcontinent and hinterland. However, if approximately 99% of Khoi-San language, traditions and culture has been forcibly and brutally removed, the history and genetics still remain.

Khoi-San were nomadic hunters and gatherers. The colonial Europeans called the San "Bushmen" or "Hottentots". In Dutch : "Bosjesmannen" and "Hottentotten" . The Dutch also called them "Strandlopers" (beach walkers), the first confrontation probably took place somewhere on the beaches around the Cape.

The San and the Khoi Khoi of the Cape Town area united, creating people who are physically very different from the Bantu Africans who have dominated the continent elsewhere . The Bantu probably migrated much more recently, as military conquerors, in the last 1000 years.

The San are physically small, five feet and less; they are also racially distinctive. Khoi Khoi speak a unique set of languages, "Khoi", the one with all the clicks.Their language had more consonants compared to the Bantu languages which had a prolific use of vowels.